Accies pay penalty once again

Hamilton Accies gave away their 10th penalty of the season to see them lose 1-0 to Aberdeen at Pittodrie last night.

Accies boss Billy Reid admitted after the game that this was a “big, big problem” for his side. It only added to the frustration of the manager this was their second one goal defeat in a row to a penalty.

Maybe the “big, big problem” for Accies is not just giving away penalties, maybe it is being too negative, maybe it’s a lack of quality in midfield or maybe it’s a lack of goals from his own team.

Reid is the master of deflection when it comes to talking to the press and looking to lay the blame somewhere else rather than at his own door. He did it on Saturday when he accused Motherwell striker John Sutton of “conning” the referee to win the penalty that won that game. TV picture show the blame lay with Martin Canning who wrapped his arms around the striker.

All Accies problems have been summed up in the last two games, playing 3-6-1 causes them problems, although the master of deflection would call it 4-3-3. No matter how you dress it up the formation he is playing does not create chances to hurt teams.

It would appear he plays six in midfield to compensate for the lack of quality in his midfield. Having lost McCarthy, McArthur and Wesolowski (to name a few) he has not been able to replace them with the same quality.

There is also the strange case of Simon Mensing who has played at the back for most of the season but has now disappeared altogether with a mysterious injury.

14 goals in 25 games tells you everything about the way the Accies have played this season. Maybe Billy needs to look internally and think about what he needs to do to get his team in a position to win games. Possibly this should see him move to 4-4-2 with Antoine Curier and Haselbaink playing up front together.

BUT will, or can, he be that brave….